TRNS News Notes is brought to you by Victoria Jones. Victoria Jones is the Chief White House correspondent and global analyst of the Washington DC based Talk Radio News Service, where her insight and analysis are made available to over 400 news talk radio stations around the country and internationally.

In the News

  • Obama: Nations must tackle violent extremism
  • But WH didn’t invite FBI director
  • ISIS: Obama / pols trade barbs
  • Mission: Retake Mosul
  • Giuliani’s anti-Obama comments: Day 2
  • Giuliani doubles down: “Socialism”
  • GCHQ, NSA stole codes for SIM cards
  • DHS: Continuing resolution?
  • Corn: O’Reilly misled viewers
  • O’Reilly: Corn “guttersnipe”
  • Superbug: In your throat

Obama: Nations Must Tackle Violent Extremism

• President Obama told representatives of more than 60 countries at a summit on violent extremism on Thursday that they must address secular strife and other economic and political grievances to blunt the appeal of terrorist groups worldwide (NYT, WaPo, TRNS, me)

• “When people are oppressed and human rights are denied, particularly along sectarian lines or ethnic lines, when dissent is silenced, it feeds violent extremism. And so we must recognize that lasting stability and real security require democracy,” Obama said

• Attending the gathering at the State Dept were senior officials from several countries whose citizens have been targeted by Islamist militants. They included Canada’s minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, France’s interior minister, and the foreign affairs ministers of Egypt and Denmark

• Obama took aim at ISIS, even as he alluded to other terrorist threats in Israel, Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia. “As we speak, ISIL is terrorizing the people of Syria and Iraq and engaging in unspeakable cruelty. The wanton murder of children, the enslavement and rape of women, threatening religious minorities with genocide, beheading hostages.”

• Obama said the U.S. and other nations must address “the painful truth” of how Muslims were often stigmatized in the West. “A lot of the bad, like terrorists who claim to speak for Islam, that’s absorbed by the general population. Not enough of the good – the more than 1 billion around the world who do represent Islam, and are doctors and lawyers and teachers and neighbors and friends

But WH Didn’t Invite FBI Director

• The WH didn’t invite the most senior American official charged with preventing terrorist attacks – FBI director James Comey – to the conference because the admin didn’t want the event too focused on law enforcement issues, according to senior American officials (NYT, me)

• But Comey’s Russian counterpart – Aleksandr Bortnikov, director of the Russian FSB, the post-Soviet KGB – was at the meeting, even though international human rights groups have repeatedly accused the Russian security services of unjustly detaining and spying on Russians and others

• Several other foreign law enforcement officials attended the DC-based conference. The meeting has been criticized as ineffectual and irrelevant, and not focused on immediate and tangible solutions to stop terrorists. Some Republicans said President Obama’s Wednesday speech didn’t lay out a strategy for defeating groups like ISIS

• The omission of Comey adds further uncertainty over who in the govt is in charge of the anti-extremist effort. Just a few months ago, the FBI put out a lengthy bulletin on its website about how it was leading “a new approach to countering violent extremism.” Many of the strategies listed by the FBI appear similar to ones mentioned at the meeting (quite snarky NYT piece!)

 

• Three months after the State Dept confirmed hackers breached its unclassified email system, the govt still hasn’t been able to evict them from the dept’s network. The attacks appears similar to a fall breach of the WH’s unclassified email system, which some U.S. officials linked to Russia (WSJ)

 

ISIS: Obama / Pols Trade Barbs

• “The notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie. And all of us, regardless of faith, have a responsibility to reject it,” President Obama said during a speech Thursday at the State Dept to reps of more than 60 countries at a summit. His speech largely echoed a keynote address the president gave on Wednesday at the WH (NYT, Hill,me)

• And for the second straight day, Republicans pounced. Senate Armed Services Committee chair John McCain (R-AZ) responded to Obama’s “lie” comment in a tweet. “The notion that radical Islam isn’t at war with the West is an ugly lie,” he said (not what Obama said – see above)

• SecState John Kerry opened Thursday’s summit’s proceedings and jumped right in. “There’s been a silly debate in the media in the last days about what you have to do. You have to do everything. You have to take the people off the battlefield who are there today. But you’re kind of stupid if all you do is do that and you don’t prevent more people from going to the battlefield.”

• “We have to stop them and kill them first and then we can worry about social reasons,” Rep Pete King (R-NY) said Tuesday in a CNN interview. “But if we think we are going to stop ISIS by somehow finding what’s bothering them psychologically.”

 

* Arctic air is sweeping across the Midwest and Northeast and into the South. Millions are shivering as record lows are challenged. Some Southern cities will dip into the teens or lower. Floridians will even experience a taste of the arctic chill. Look after your pets, people (AccuWeather, me)

Mission: Retake Mosul

• The operation to retake Iraq’s second largest city from ISIS militants will likely begin in April or May and will involve about 12 Iraqi brigades, or between 20,000 and 25,000 troops, a senior U.S. military official said Thursday (AP, TRNS, me)

• Laying out details of the expected Mosul operation for the first time, the official from U.S. Central Command said five Iraqi Army brigades will soon go through coalition training in Iraq to prepare for the mission. They’ll make up the core force. Supplemented by three smaller brigades, three Peshmerga brigades and a Mosul fighting force. Included: Iraqi counterterrorism forces

• Asked why CentCom was telegraphing the timeframe and details of the operation to the enemy, the official said it was important to highlight the effort the Iraqi security forces are putting into the mission and how committed they are to it (ie they won’t run away this time?)

• The official said the U.S. will provide military support for the operation. Also, there has been no decision made yet on whether to send in some U.S. ground troops to help call in airstrikes. That decision would be made by senior defense and military leaders and President Obama

• Officials estimate there are between 1,000 to 2,000 ISIS militants in Mosul. The official said they wanted to retake Mosul in the spring, before the summer heat and the holiday month of Ramadan kick in. But “if they’re not ready, if the conditions are not set,” then “we have not closed the door on continuing to slide that to the right.”

• John Morgan, a major Florida donor supportive of medical marijuana, is alleging that Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) offered her backing on the issue if he retracted withering comments about her. There are emails. He refused. “She is a bully,” he responded (Politico, Hill, me)

 

Giuliani’s Anti-Obama Comments: Day 2

• Democratic National Committee chair Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) on Thursday called on GOP presidential candidates to disavow comments made by former NYT mayor Rudy Giuliani in which he said he doesn’t believe President Obama “loves America.” Schultz called on the potential candidates to “start leading.” (Politico, ABC, Hill, me)

• Giuliani made the comments at a private dinner Wednesday featuring Gov Scott Walker (R-WI), a potential 2016er. “I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”

• “If the Republican Party really wants to be taken seriously, really wants to avoid its problems of the past, now is the time for its leaders to stop this kind of nonsense. Enough. … I would challenge my Republican colleagues and anyone in the Republican Party to say enough. They need to start leading,” Wasserman Schultz said

• Walker on Thursday feebly led from behind and declined on CNBC to comment on the flap. “The mayor can speak for himself. I’m not going to comment on what the president thinks or not, he can speak for himself as well. I can tell you I love this country.” (big, smart political move would have been to say of course Obama loves this country, but Walker went small)

Giuliani Doubles Down: “Socialism”

• In an interview with NYT Thursday, Giuliani said his description of Obama’s upbringing wasn’t racist. “I thought that was a joke, since he was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, and most of this he learned from white people. This isn’t racism. This is socialism or possibly anti-colonialism.” (code: from his black father suggestion?)

• He challenged a reporter to find examples of Obama expressing love for his country. “I’m happy for him to give a speech where he talks about what’s good about America and doesn’t include all the criticism.” (WH website?)

• “What I don’t find with Obama – this will get me in trouble again – is a really deep knowledge of history. I think it’s a dilettante’s knowledge of history.”

• On Fox and Friends Thursday, Giuliani astonishingly said, “Well, first of all, I’m not questioning his patriotism. He’s a patriot, I’m sure.” Giuliani then joined in criticism of Obama’s characterization of extremism: “If you refuse to say that there are extremist members of the Islamic religion, well then, it sounds like you’re living on Mars.” (room for two?)

 

• Iran and six world powers, including the U.S., resume nuclear talks today. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday: “We know that Tehran knows the details of the talks. Now I tell you that Israel also knows the details of the proposed agreement.” He asked, “What is there to hide?” (Reuters, AP, me)

 

GCHQ, NSA Stole Codes for SIM Cards

• GCHQ, Britain’s electronic spying agency, in cooperation with the NSA, hacked into the networks of Gemalto, a Dutch company, to steal codes that allow both govts to seamlessly eavesdrop on mobile phones worldwide, according to docs given to journalists by Edward Snowden (thank you) (Intercept, AP, Verge, me)

• A story in the Intercept gave no details on what the intel agencies were doing with the eavesdropping ability – no evidence they misused it to spy on people who weren’t valid intelligence targets. But people are going to be very angry around the world at this surreptitious operation against the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phone data chips

• It fuels an impression that the NSA and its British counterpart will do whatever they deem necessary to further their surveillance prowess, even if it means stealing info from law-abiding Western companies. (because it was stealing – and they will do whatever it takes) Gemalto makes SIM cards, used in mobile phones and credit cards. It’s investigating

• Its clients include AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint. The Intercept offered no evidence of eavesdropping against American customers of those providers and company officials told the website they had no idea their networks had been penetrated. The breach is disastrous for mobile security. The NSA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment

•  British govt hackers targeted Gemalto engineers around the world, stealing credentials that got the hackers into the company’s networks. Once inside, the British spies stole encryption keys that allow them to decode the data that passes between mobile phones and cell towers. That allows them to ungarble calls, texts or emails intercepted out of the air

• In a 2010 slide, GCQH officials claimed to have “successfully implanted several machines and believe we have their entire

[Gemalto] network.”

DHS: Continuing Resolution?

• Given the impasse on Capitol Hill, a continuing resolution might be the likeliest short-term solution to the Homeland Security funding issue. Funding will run out on 27 Feb. A CR could pass quickly when lawmakers return from their recess next week. But it would be a poor solution (Politico, me)

• DHS Sec Jeh Sohnson has been warning Capitol Hill of the downsides. A CR wouldn’t include any of the money the dept is supposed to get for new initiatives – it just keeps last year’s funding on autopilot

• Customs and Border Protection wouldn’t be able to upgrade its mobile video systems to patrol the Rio Grande Valley. FEMA wouldn’t be able to write the grants that pay the salaries of state and local emergency management officials. It might also have to cancel a series of training workshops next month for first responders

• And the 2016ers have a stake in this, too: the Secret Service won’t be able to train the security details that are supposed to protect them on the campaign trail. It won’t be able to start training the agents who will be assigned to President Obama when he leaves off, either. It won’t be able to do DHS-related upgrades for the WH after security breaches

• Johnson is telling lawmakers that DHS wouldn’t be able to pay for new detention beds for immigrants who crossed the border illegally, and it would lose critical funding that has already been negotiated in the appropriations bills, including $25 million to upgrade scanners at the borders and ports and $49 million for new radiation detection systems. There’s more, too

 

• The Texas Supreme Court has issued an emergency order blocking gay couples from obtaining marriage licenses after a lesbian couple wed in Austin. Thursday’s ruling doesn’t invalidate the marriage of the two women who were allowed to marry hours earlier based on a one-time court order issued for health reasons. One of the women has cancer (AP)

 

Corn: O’Reilly Misled Viewers / O’Reilly: Corn “Guttersnipe”

• David Corn, lead author of a new report alleging that Bill O’Reilly lied about his Falklands War experience, told On Media blog Thursday, “To me, the issue here is whether a media figure and journalist like Bill O’Reilly, who claims to be a truth teller, can get away without answering questions about specific statements he’s made, and hide behind name calling.” (Politico, me)

• Corn’s remarks came immediately after O’Reilly called Corn a “liar” and a “despicable guttersnipe” during an interview with On Media. O’Reilly said that he never claimed to have been on the Falkland Islands” and that Corn’s report, for Mother Jones, was “a piece of garbage.”

• In the report, Corn alleges that O’Reilly repeatedly misled viewers by claiming to have been in a war zone during the conflict between England and Argentina in 1982

• In his book, in public appearances and on his TV program, O’Reilly has claimed to have been “in an active war zone” in the Falklands, despite the fact that no American correspondents are believed to have reached the combat zones on the islands

&&&

• O’Reilly was present at a public protest in Buenos Aires against the military junta, following the Argentine surrender to Britain. In Thursday’s interview, Corn called this a protest situation that no reasonable person would categorize as a “war zone” experience

• “The conflict was in the Falkland Islands, it was not in Buenos Aires. He covered a protest after the war was over in Buenos Aires. I don’t think that’s a reasonable definition of a combat situation.”

• Corn also told On Media that he gave O’Reilly and Fox News more than nine hours to respond to the issues raised in his report and that they never responded to him. He spoke to a spox, sent a detailed list of questions, added links. Then he called about four times, sent follow up emails. Heard nothing, Then emailed Exec VP Bill Shine. Nothing, so at 5.30 pm he published

• “He chose not to address the issue, he chose to throw mud,” Corn said. “And I would say that his right to impugn others ought to be diminished until he answers the basic question about his statements.” In his interview with On Media, O’Reilly said Corn had been trying to take him down “for years.” O’Reilly claimed he has “never” said he was in the Falkland Islands

 

• State Dept is denying Venezuela’s claims that the U.S. was behind a coup aimed at overthrowing President Nicolas Maduro. The denial came after Venezuelan authorities arrested the mayor of Caracas, a prominent opposition leader, Thursday. Reports said the govt said the arrest was necessary to thwart a U.S.-backed power grab (Hill, me)

 

Superbug: In Your Throat

• The FDA issued a warning Thursday that certain medical scopes, likely those used in a California hospital where 179 patients may have been infected by a potentially deadly “superbug,” are extremely difficult to disinfect and even thorough cleanings “may not entirely eliminate” the risks (i – eww; ii – now they’re telling us) (Hill, AP, me)

• The warning from the FDA comes one day after UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center informed patients that they might have been exposed to a potentially deadly infection called CRE. At least seven people have been infected and two people have died

• The scopes have been shown to spread drug-resistant bacterial infections “even when manufacturer reprocessing instructions are followed correctly,” the FDA said. The 179 patients who may have been infected are being offered home testing kits that would be analyzed by the University of California, LA, hospital system

• The possible exposures occurred between Oct and Jan during procedures in which a specialized endoscope is inserted down the throat to diagnose and treat pancreatic and bile duct diseases. The hospital system said it had been sterilizing the scopes according to manufacturer’s standards but was now using a more rigorous process

• Superbug infections are difficult to treat because some of the bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics, and the CDC said the germs could contribute to death in up to 50% of infected patients

• Rocking into the weekend with “Home” – Jack Savoretti – leaping up the British singles charts right now

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______________

Victoria Jones – Editor

TRNS’ William McDonald and James Cullum contributed to this report

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